Increased market competition and globalization has made supply chain management an essential and important concern for every company. Supply chain management is all about attaining the apt things at the right place and time. It helps in enhancing business performance by searching out ways to make the goods reach the customers faster, better and cheaper.
Typically, the stakeholders in a supply chain comprises of manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, distributors and customers. Hence, supply chain management aims at the total movement of services and products from one end of this chain to the other, through various stages in order to enhance the profitability, productivity and efficiency of the overall process. When a customer has got direct admission to global suppliers, the percentage of competing vendors in any section is huge. Global markets compel enterprises to retain competitive price range. Hence, the capacity to produce a given good at a lesser price can offer any enterprise tremendous competitive advantage regardless of its territorial location. Furthermore, increased volumes in global market add in sustainability to the bottom-line. In short, supply chain management is all about attaining higher volumes and service levels without having to raise expenses.
Eminent service providers today have introduced supply chain management solutions that lead to several cost benefits. Some of them are as follows:-
- Minimized logistics expenses by 30% with the help of order and shipment consolidation
- Minimized logistics management staff globally by 70%
- Results in automated processing of 90% of orders and even more
- Minimized the count of warehouses from 70 to 3
- Minimized stock by 30%
- Helps in attaining real-time visibility into ongoing order fulfillment logistics flow
- Minimized transport invoice expenses through an improved control of carriers’ invoices
- Minimized environmental impact through lesser locations and improved shipment consolidation
These leading service providers today utilize Cloud Process and provide efficient order management system hat enables the users to have a clear idea of whatever is taking place in the flow. At the same time, it results in better effective logistics planning and consolidation, as well as intervening with the appropriate measures as and when it is required.
To conclude, supply chain management solutions are looked upon as a medium or channel that functions between vertically integrated firms. That means here the overall material flow is administered by one firm and those where every channel partner operates independently. Therefore, a co-ordination between the various players in the chain is what results in the overall success. In addition to other innovative features, service providers of supply chain management also specialize in efficient purchase order software.
Read on - order fulfillment, Expense management software
When a customer places an order he expects on-time delivery of a high quality product that has the capability to meet all his requirements. As you are the provider of the product sought after by your clients you have to ensure that a range of processes are carried out without any hindrances so that you can deliver the product without fail. An order management system is a necessity so that you have an effortless and efficient enterprise resource planning platform for information exchange facilities on stock updates, inventory specifications, sales orders, transport and pick-up list orders as well as exemption management.
An integrated order management system provides cost reduction benefits through the automated processes which include billing and document creation. It helps in efficient tracking and tracing of your reference identifiers. It facilitates successful deployment of business policies of independent partners. It assists in maximization of assets with real-time reporting and notification capabilities. The processes are structured and fast to deploy rendering intelligent reports and expedited ROI. The order management system provides consistent and customized support that is extremely suitable for your business.
An organized and comprehensive order management system results in satisfying order fulfillment services with promising customer retention levels. The order fulfillment process is deployed on the cloud where the processes are automated and you have a greater control and enhanced visibility of your business operations. The cloud model enables end-to-end integration of the business value network. It ensures that the service level agreements are fulfilled competently and immediate actions are taken if there are any deviations.
The order fulfillment process enforces a valid order management system right from the sourcing stage till its final dispatch. The process is equipped with intelligent capabilities to manage the key performance indicators in the global network, track the trends, make critical analysis and identify the areas that obstruct the efficiency of the operation. It can strategically consolidate large amounts of data collected from various sources and convert them into powerful resources for making important decisions.
It provides web interfaces that provide cross-referencing capabilities and search facilities depending on the criteria specified. The orders are automatically processed into shipments considering the configured routes, carriers and rules. It helps in creation of shipping documents and sends it to the carrier electronically. It also provides a view of the order status and the event history. The cloud process leverages your business operations as it provides you with simple and cohesive processes that reduce costs and investments. It focuses on improving customer satisfaction levels, providing increased and independent controls, complying with the service level agreements and applying remediation actions.
Also read on - Supply chain management systems, Regional development
It can be extremely difficult to achieve optimum control and efficiency in a value network, in today’s highly competitive, complex and volatile business environment. A value network is multi enterprise and spans over the industries of the numerous e-commerce partners that participate in an end-to-end collaboration. In order to understand e-procurement, it is important to understand the supply chain and how e-procurement can be used for an enhanced value network.
The objective of a Purchasing Manager or a Procurement Manger is to facilitate the in flow of goods and services to the organization, in such a way as to match specific organizational requirements, in the timeliest way, at the most advantageous prices. The application of e-Procurement techniques provides a means of improving efficiencies in specific segments of the supply chain management systems, thereby facilitating the achievement of the Procurement Manager’s objectives. Traditional methods and tools are not sufficient to manage the widely-distributed, business-critical resources in the value network.
Many organizations today use cloud computing to take control and manage their value networks. Cloud Processes integrate and automate the business processes of the entire value network across partners and the systems they use. They provides end-to-end visibility of the entire value network based on real-time information and access to all key master information, whether it resides inside or outside your own network.
An automated procurement and purchasing process integrates a company’s buyers with its suppliers together with the relevant IT systems on both sides. Together, these elements constitute the company’s value network of collaborating partners. This improves your organizational efficiency and reduces the administrative costs of all steps in the procurement process. It significantly enhances your company’s control over procurement activities at all levels. True after sales is beyond traditional purchase order software and post award management.
With automated procurement process, essential business information readily available to all authorized constituents across the Value Network. It provides the end-to-end visibility of real-time business information at the operational, tactical, and strategic levels. It also provides business process agility necessary to cope with today’s volatile, complex, and super interconnected globalized markets. Automated cloud processes can be custom-built to specific customer requirements. While they take responsibility for many of their products far beyond the point of sale, they also they are responsible for the recycling and return of worn out goods in some cases.
Automated procurement processes for the value network enable management to take control of end-to-end business processes and automate the basic interaction among its participants. They help shorten the lead times in value added activities in the value network.
Read on - Expense management software, order fulfillment
